Study Details | Pathways to Work

3131.04-Grand Rapids Labor F

Study quality: High

High

Intervention: Grand Rapids Labor Force Attachment (LFA) Program

Population and employment barriers: Cash assistance recipients, Parents, Single parents

Services provided: Education, Sanctions, Supportive services, Training, Occupational or sectoral training, Unpaid work experience, Work experience, Job search assistance

Setting: Urban only

Study Design

Design:

Randomized controlled trial

Study group formation:

Evaluators randomly assigned a total of 4,554 single-parent Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients who were required to enroll in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program in Grand Rapids into the LFA program, the Human Capital Development (HCD) program, or the comparison group. The random assignment occurred between September 1991 and January 1994 and followed a JOBS orientation (which not all JOBS-mandatory individuals attended, although they faced sanctions for failing to appear). AFDC recipients were exempt if they had children younger than 1, had three or more children younger than 10, were employed 30 hours or more per week, were medically unable to work, were in the last trimester of pregnancy, had resided in a mental institution at all during the previous 5 years, had been enrolled in a rehabilitation center, or were taking medication for a mental illness. Voluntary JOBS participants were not randomly assigned and were excluded from the analysis. The study included two- and five-year follow-up surveys of randomly selected individuals who were randomly assigned between March 1992 and January 1994. This review focuses on LFA versus a comparison condition in Grand Rapids; other reviews examine HCD relative to a comparison condition and HCD relative to LFA.

Time period of study:

Individuals were randomly assigned between September 1991 and January 1994. The study reports impacts five years after random assignment.

Primary outcome domains examined:

Increase short-term earnings, Increase long-term earnings, Increase long-term employment, Increase short-term employment, Decrease short-term benefit receipt, Decrease long-term benefit receipt, Increase education and training

Other outcome domains examined:

Child well-being, Physical health, Household and personal circumstances, Fertility, Household composition, Housing, Domestic abuse, Child care

Study funded by:

The National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation), and by the U.S. Department of Education.

Results

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Outcome domain	Measure	Timing	Study quality by finding	Comparison group mean	Intervention group mean	Impact	Units	Sample size
Increase short-term earnings	Annual earnings	Year 1	High	1,759.00	2,289.00	530.00	1993 dollars	3,012
Increase long-term earnings	Weekly earnings	Year 2	High	118.77	121.75	2.98	1995 dollars	1,158
Increase long-term earnings	Annual earnings	Year 5	High	6,447.00	6,376.00	8068.25	1997 dollars	3,012
Increase short-term employment	Ever employed, annual	Year 1	High	52.90	63.60	10.70	percentage points	3,012
Increase long-term employment	Ever employed, annual	Year 5	High	73.00	70.00	-3.00	percentage points	3,012
Increase long-term employment	Employed for four consecutive quarters	Year 5	High	38.70	39.40	0.70	percentage points	3,012
Increase long-term employment	Currently employed	Month 60	High	67.70	65.10	-2.60	percentage points	1,097
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Received AFDC/TANF, quarterly	Quarter 4	High	82.70	78.20	-4.50	percentage points	3,012
Decrease short-term benefit receipt	Amount of AFDC/TANF benefits, annual	Year 1	High	4,245.00	3,556.00	-689.00	1993 dollars	1,922
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Months of Food Stamps receipt, follow-up period	Years 1–5	High	33.80	30.50	-3.30	months	3,012
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Amount of Food Stamps/SNAP benefits, follow-up period	Years 1–5	High	6,966.00	6,351.00	-615.00	1995 dollars	3,012
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Received AFDC/TANF, quarterly	Quarter 20	High	27.80	24.30	-3.50	percentage points	3,012
Decrease long-term benefit receipt	Amount of AFDC/TANF benefits, follow-up period	Years 1–5	High	12,966.00	10,414.00	-2552.00	1995 dollars	3,012
Increase education and training	Received high school diploma or GED	Year 2	High	4.20	2.40	-1.80	percentage points	1,158
Increase education and training	Earned a license	Year 2	High	9.20	7.00	-2.20	percentage points	1,158

Short-term outcomes are those measured 18 months or fewer after participants are first offered services. Long-term outcomes are those measured between 18 months and 5 years after participants are first offered services. Very long-term outcomes are those measured 5 years or more after participants are first offered services.

Findings quality key:

High
Moderate

Study quality terms?

The findings quality describe our confidence that a given study’s finding is because of the intervention. We do not display findings that rate low.

Findings key:

A moderate-to-large favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A moderate-to-large favorable finding that might to be due to chance
A small favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A small favorable finding that might be due to chance
A favorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A favorable finding that might be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A moderate-to-large unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A moderate-to-large unfavorable finding that might to be due to chance
A small unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance
A small unfavorable finding that might be due to chance
An unfavorable finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
An unfavorable finding that might be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size
A finding that is unlikely to be due to chance, but we cannot determine the standardized effect size or direction
A finding of no effect that might be due to chance

Favorable findings are impacts in a direction that is socially desirable. Statistical significance indicates the likelihood that a study finding is due to the intervention, rather than due to chance. Findings are described as moderate-to-large if the intervention produced a sufficiently large change in the outcome. An impact receives this designation if the standardized effect size is equal to or greater than 0.25 or equal to or less than -0.25.

Sample Characteristics

Among the 4,554 study participants (1,557 in the LFA program, 1,542 in the HCD program and 1,455 in the comparison group), nearly 96 percent were female at an average age of 28 years when the study began. More than half of the participants were White, and almost 40 percent were Black. Nearly 58 percent were never married. The average number of children was 1 to 2 per family. Almost half (46 percent) of parents had some earnings in the past 12 months, and about 11 percent were employed at random assignment. Nearly 60 percent of parents had received a high school diploma or GED, and about 29 percent of parents were enrolled in education or training in the past 12 months. More than 99 percent received some AFDC benefits at the time of random assignment.

Age

Mean age

28 years

Sex

Female	96%
Male	4%

Participant race and ethnicity

Black or African American	39%
White	50%
Hispanic or Latino of any race	8%
American Indian or Alaska Native	2%
Unknown, not reported, or other	1%

Family status

Parents	100%
Single parents	100%

Participant employment and public benefit status

Were employed	11%
Were eligible for cash assistance	100%

Participant education

Had some postsecondary education	5%
Had a high school diploma or GED	59%
Did not have a high school diploma or GED	41%

Intervention Implementation

Implementing organization:

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services

Program history:

NEWWS aims to analyze the effectiveness of 11 mandatory welfare-to-work programs in seven sites across the United States.

Intervention services:

The LFA program focused on rapid job placement. Staff encouraged clients to move quickly into work without being selective about which job to take. Staff could impose financial sanctions (by reducing welfare grant amounts) if clients did not participate in required activities. In Grand Rapids, LFA program staff first assigned clients to a job club operated by public school staff in a community education center. After two weeks, clients began applying to jobs for up to three weeks. Clients had to make 6 in-person inquiries or send 15 inquiry letters per week. People who did not find a job during this period could go on to participate in unpaid work experiences, more job searching, vocational training, or basic education. Case managers, who had limited individualized involvement with clients, emphasized monitoring participation and enforcing participation rules by sanctioning nonparticipating clients. However, they could support clients by directly paying child care providers and reimbursing transportation costs.

Mandatory services:

AFDC was decreased if clients did not comply with program requirements.

Comparison services:

People in the comparison group could not receive any program services but were also not subject to participation requirements (and therefore the risk of nonparticipation sanctions) for program services or employment. These clients could, however, participate in employment-related activities available in their communities.

Service receipt duration:

Job clubs lasted for about one month, and clients who completed job club but remained unemployed could receive multiple rounds of short-term education or vocational training for periods of nine months. The study did not specify how long the program monitored clients to examine whether a sanction should be applied to their case.

Intervention funding:

Michigan state; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Study Publications

Freedman, Stephen (2000). The National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies—Four-year impacts of ten programs on employment stability and earnings growth, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and U.S. Department of Education. Available at https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/full_376.pdf.

Freedman, Stephen, Daniel Friedlander, Gayle Hamilton, JoAnn Rock, Marisa Mitchell, Jodi Nudelman, Amanda Schweder, and Laura Storto (2000). National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies—Evaluating alternative welfare-to-work approaches: Two-year impacts for eleven programs, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and U.S. Department of Education. Available at https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/national-evaluation-welfare-work-strategies-evaluating-alternative-welfare-work-approaches-two-year-impacts-eleven-programs-executive-summary.

Hamilton, Gayle, Stephen Freedman, Lisa Gennetian, Charles Michalopoulos, Johanna Walter, Diana Adams-Ciardullo, Anna Gassman-Pines, Sharon McGroder, Martha Zaslow, Jennifer Brooks, and Surjeet Ahluwalia (2001). National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies—How effective are different welfare-to-work approaches? Five-year adult and child impacts for eleven programs, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and U.S. Department of Education. Available at https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/full_391.pdf.

Hamilton, Gayle, Thomas Brock, Mary Farrell, Daniel Friedlander, and Kristen Harknett (1997). National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies–Evaluating two welfare-to-work program approaches: Two-year findings on the Labor Force Attachment and Human Capital Development programs in three sites, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation; and U.S. Department of Education. Available at https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/full_96.pdf.

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Study of Grand Rapids Labor Force Attachment (LFA) Program